


I Won't Let You Go

by tragicallywicked



Category: Divergent Series - Veronica Roth, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Divergent, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst and Feels, F/M, Inspired by Divergent, Slow Burn, Twilight References, i'm learning the angsty ways with my wife let's see how well i'll do with that, let's add that tag too cause it's gonna happen, yes you read it right anna is writing angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:27:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27627440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tragicallywicked/pseuds/tragicallywicked
Summary: In a post-dystopian Chicago, Dauntless-borns Jasper Whitlock and Mary Alice Brandon find separate paths in different factions. Only to have fate trail their destiny back together after four years since they last saw at their Choosing Ceremony. The years of repressed feelings bring back the best—and the worst—of when they were together. In the midst of a rising threat to their system, they struggle to find the balance between their duty to their factions and what they feel for each other.
Relationships: Alice Cullen/Jasper Hale
Comments: 6
Kudos: 5





	I Won't Let You Go

**Author's Note:**

> ALRIGHT! So this was supposed to be a moodboard—which I've been making a bunch Jalice AUs for tumblr—and then Miss @wehavefound gave me all these thoughts and ideas and I just sat for four straight hours outlining and writing down this story. It is yet another one to have on my hands, but I am super hyped about this and I hope you do too. Credits of these ideas all to @wehavefound and @allicekitty13 who sat and discussed with me giving me their theories of where Jalice would fit into this universe. So YES, it is a Divergent AU. PROBABLY won't be following a lot in canon. And time-wise, think it before Tris!
> 
> This is a little chapter cause as you may have seen it is a prologue. Now, without further ado, good reading!

_No one can ever know..._

Few things in life had the capability to stress out Jasper Whitlock. He'd always been in perfect tune and control of emotions. He'd found solace in being a calm man and, at times, helping others find tranquility. Not for he was selfless as, in fact, the ability came to his own benefit. Jasper was a strategic man, driven by intelligence, and for that, he understood many complexities in the human mind. With time and study, he also learned that a person driven by strong emotions was more prone to impulsive actions and those could be enormously dangerous if poorly managed. For one too many times, he had witnessed it in his birth faction—Dauntless.  


It had been exactly four years since he last stepped foot on moving trains, rooftops, or even the pit. When he joined Erudite those years ago, in his Choosing Ceremony, Jasper never turned back. He never belonged in the fight, it brought him uncertainty, misery even.

Even if he hadn't initiated, it was a custom for Dauntless children to grow among that life, to be trained to become fighters. Some, like Jasper, deserted it. He was a fighter within his soul. He had been in fight training, knife throwing contests, and the regular combat sessions. Jasper was good, he had always been agile, witty and _strategic_ in battle. He was, in fact, a strong and towering man, but he saw the battlefield as a chessboard, to be thought out, studied and analyzed before attack. He'd observe opponents, find their weaknesses and he'd always succeed that way.  


He had always thought all were that way, that all saw fights through and didn't act so impulsively. Until he became friends with Emmett McCarty—another Dauntless born—and Jasper learned how little he belonged with his faction. He'd been only thirteen when that happened. Emmett was impulsive, ready to fight and not think, a true Dauntless one would say. He would still lose to Jasper every time, even if the other boy was much larger and taller. Jasper used intelligence for his own good, and he kept it a secret too.  


Perhaps why it came out so unexpectedly to all when Jasper chose Erudite. He'd always been seen as a prodigy, one Dauntless was looking for to have in their leaders once he was old enough. But they didn't know the real Jasper, who'd rely on wit and strategy to brave through fights he didn't want to be in. Many even guessed he would not pass his initiation in Erudite, taking bets he would become faction-less. But he had excelled. Jasper had always been more about intelligence. People just didn't know him—all but one.  


Mary Alice Brandon met him at the age of five—Jasper had been six at the time. With Jasper's parents' passing, he was taken to a home by hers and they had grown up together, sharing the one thing they had in common: the feeling of not belonging. Like himself, Alice always felt out of place at Dauntless, even when there were times he'd seen the audacity and bravery in her.  


She was a little thing, barely making it to five feet, hair short and wild, and a small pointy nose. She had the most beautiful eyes Jasper had seen his entire life, deep like no other. There was strength in her that he hadn't seen in others with almost double her size. Alice was constantly putting herself into troublesome situations and needed no assistance getting off those—at many times, when they were young, she had, in fact, helped Jasper out of some of his own misfortunes.  


_Her,_ they were all expecting to leave Dauntless, even with her bravery, she was always the bluntly honest, the fair one. The fact she stood up for others and was so keen about the truth gave Jasper an impression she might chose Candor on their Choosing Ceremony—but that was barely a subject they talked about, even if they would normally spend most of their time together. It was like somewhere, deep inside, both of them _knew_ their fates didn't walk a path together.  


That didn't stop them growing feelings for one another—not that those were ever voiced out loud, but they were always there, lingering in the air. Jasper didn't think the sentiment was mutual, he loved her madly and she always saw him as a friend, at least in his mind. They had known each other since childhood, she had supported him through the worst of times in his life when he lost his family, so he couldn't make his mind that she would ever see him more than just a neighbor or a best friend. But he loved her.  


Jasper realized that when they were fifteen after Alice had gotten badly injured in a combat session at the training center. He had not left her bedside for three days on end—Emmett going as far as bringing him snacks during those days—as he had to be sure she would be all right. When the fight took place, Jasper had been standing there by the arena, watching when she got knocked out unconscious by her much taller male opponent—those were never a problem at Dauntless and he had always hated it. Jasper had been the one to rush her to the emergency care and the thought of losing her was not something he could bear. Yet, it was a choice he _made_ four years ago.  


At their Choosing Ceremony, Jasper had been confident of what his choice would be. Erudite was the logical choice and what his test results told him that he belonged to. He had made his mind that he would choose it once his time came. He had no family in Dauntless and very few times he had felt at home there, Erudite was the right choice. And then Alice went before him and dripped her blood into Candor's bowl.  


They had never talked about factions, but Jasper hoped that Alice's test might point her to the same as his. She was wise, more than anyone he'd met, so he had _hoped_ that their fate would put them together. Jasper couldn't look at her as she walked toward Candor's welcoming claps, he had to make a choice. Was he going to follow after her, the one he had always loved, or would he be true to himself?  


From _B_ to _W_ —as the names were drawn by last names—Jasper sat there unquiet. It was _his_ choice, he had to make the right one for himself, for his own life. But would he be able to simply, and easy, walk away from Alice? _How_ would he give her up when she was the most important thing that ever waltzed into his life? He didn't think he could.  


As his name was called and Jasper walked up to the stage, his eyes on the bowls of Erudite and Candor, he recalled the initiation. How would he ever pass in the _honest_ faction if he was beginning it with a lie to his own self? He'd become factionless and then he would certainly never see Alice ever again. _Perhaps_ if he made the right choice, there would be a chance—they could at least cross paths every once in a while—or he hoped there would be.  


He made the cut and watched with a tightness in his throat how the blood pooled there, in that narrow opening. His eyes grew dark for a moment as Jasper stared at the blood and still tried to think it through, to make the _logical strategic_ move that could lead him to the best outcome. There was _no doubt_ where he truly belonged and the realization that it wasn't with Alice only made his heart sink further. They wouldn't ever be allowed together as a couple in different factions, but he considered then how she might see him merely as her friend, and they _could_ be friends in separate factions, at least amicable, but it would _never_ be the same again. It was faction over blood, after all.  


In the middle of the crowd, when Jasper quickly searched up, he found her eyes. For a moment, it was like the entire world stopped and the room was empty as he stared into her only—the deepness of her eyes that he loved so. He felt nauseous and slightly dizzy, perhaps the smell of all the dripped blood in the room or the fact Jasper knew he'd never see those eyes the same away again as he dropped the blood into Erudite's bowl. The room was filled again in a second, the cheers from his new faction filling up the place as Jasper reached for the towel, but there was sadness in his eyes—after a long and apologetic last gaze—as he walked up to his faction to let their eyes never meet again.

Until then.

And _that_ —she—certainly had the ability to stress him out.


End file.
